


Out for the Count

by JohnAmendAll



Category: Dracula (TV 1968)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fix-It, Fluff, Stealth Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-05-12 19:10:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5677261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnAmendAll/pseuds/JohnAmendAll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucy has been saved from the Count, and wishes to make her own desires known.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out for the Count

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lost_spook](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_spook/gifts).



Mina had been sleeping, but the sound of the carriage drawing up outside had awoken her. The knock on the outer door, the hurried footsteps of her landlady, the lowered voices had all come clearly to her ears, and by the time the woman tapped at her door she was out of bed, with a shawl thrown over her nightgown. 

"Come in," she said. 

The door swung open, admitting the landlady and Doctor Seward. Something seemed to grip Mina's heart, and it felt as if it took her an impossible effort to force out the word "Lucy?" 

Seward shook his head. "She is much improved. But an accident— that clumsy nurse—" As if overcome by the events of the night, he subsided into Mina's only chair and mopped his brow. "Mrs Weston engaged a nurse to sit up with Lucy and keep watch. What Van Helsing will say when he learns of it, I cannot imagine; he insisted that it would be far too dangerous for anybody to spend the night with her. Be that as it may, the foolish woman somehow knocked a lamp over and started a fire. It has been extinguished, but Miss Weston's bedroom is quite unusable until repairs are made." 

Mina thought about this. "And you are come to me?" 

"I could not possibly allow a young lady to sleep at my house without a chaperone. Her reputation would never withstand it. And so I thought at once of you." 

"Of course. Allow me a few minutes to collect what I need, and then I shall be ready to accompany you." 

⁂

Within the hour, Lucy was safely installed in Doctor Seward's spare bedroom, with Mina sitting beside the bed in a hard, upright chair that was clearly intended to encourage posture rather than comfort. Despite Seward's claims that she had improved, Mina found it hard to see any change; the girl lay unmoving, her breathing shallow and her skin pale. 

How, in such a chair, Mina contrived to fall asleep, she knew not. But she plainly had, for she awoke to find the candle burned down. 

"Mina?" Lucy whispered. Mina turned to see that Lucy's eyes were open, and fixed on her face. Her voice was so faint that Mina hastily bent low over the bed to catch her words. "Where are we?" 

"This is Doctor Seward's house," Mina replied. "There was a fire in your bedroom and he insisted you be brought here." 

"Fire," Lucy repeated dreamily. "That was no fire. That was the Count." 

"The Count? Dracula?" 

"He burned." Lucy closed her eyes, picturing the scene. "He came to me, as he had before. He promised me endless life, power, men... It was the nurse who saved me." 

Though Lucy must be recounting hallucinations, Mina found herself pressing for more details. "How?" 

Lucy's eyes snapped open. "She is a witch, Mina. A sorceress older than the Count, though she looks barely my age. She had learned secrets of her own, and it was her familiar that destroyed him. It took the form of a raven, that flew into his heart. He burned like a torch." 

Mina put her hand on Lucy's head. The girl did not seem feverish or delirious. 

"I wanted to thank her," Lucy went on. "But she said the Count was her enemy. I would live, but it would have meant nothing to her if I had died. And then she called for help, for the fire was spreading, and made some pretence of clumsiness. That is all I know." 

"It was all nothing but a dream, surely." 

"Call it so, if you wish." Lucy raised a trembling hand to Mina's cheek. "But it has set thoughts running in my mind which cannot be stilled." She swallowed. "I am thirsty. Is there water?" 

There was, and Mina sat beside her on the bed to help her drink it. 

"Whether I live or not," Lucy's faint voice went on, "there is something I must do. Lie beside me. Please." 

Mina, who had not been keen to return to the chair, obediently lay on top of the bed beside her charge, and turned to face her. 

"I am here," she said, reassuringly. "What do you wish to do?" 

"This," Lucy whispered, and kissed her on the lips. At the same moment her hand caressed Mina's cheek again, then slid down her neck and rested on her chest. 

Mina, scarcely knowing what she was doing, willed herself to draw back, but it was Lucy that eventually broke the kiss off. She met Mina's shocked eyes with a faint echo of her usual mischievous smile. 

"I have wanted to do that since I first knew you," she said, her voice still weak. "And now I know that you feel as I do." 

Mina felt herself succumbing to a weakness she had never suspected, one that had nothing to do with any physical injury. "How?" she asked. 

Lucy's hand moved slightly, sensitive fingers exploring the fastenings of Mina's blouse. "Your body speaks more truly than your tongue." 

"Lucy, this cannot be. You are unwell." 

"Don't you understand? That is why I want to— need to— do all I can, now. If I recover, so much the better." Another of those impish near-smiles. "I am saving some of my more energetic notions against that day." 

Mina's resistance was collapsing like a sandcastle in the tide. "What if a servant should discover us? Or Doctor Seward? What will he say?" 

"Say? I daresay he will faint at the sight." Both of Lucy's hands were at work now; one by now well inside Mina's blouse, the other teasing the hair at the back of her neck. It was affecting Mina as Jonathan's touch never had. "The Count promised me eternity. But how could that compare to one night with you?"


End file.
